A large chunk of an American space rocket believed to be from the SpaceX Falcon 9 which exploded after take-off in Florida in June, has been found in the sea off the Isles of Scilly.

The section measures about 32 ft by 13ft. Because of its size and marking, some astronomers think it could be from a different mission.

Joseph Thomas, from Tresco Boat Services, found the section of rocket while going around the north end of the island. He thought at first it was a dead whale that gulls were feeding off of. When he got closer to it, he realized his mistake and attempted to drag it to the shore, but they couldn’t do so because it was so heavy.

Thomas said the piece was covered in goose barnacles and at first it was very hard to determine what it was. He initially thought it was part of a plane, but after scraping off some of the barnacles he saw that it was part of a rocket.

The group that thinks it is not from the June mission have determined that the piece does not appear to be from a rocket that exploded, but normal space junk. Further investigation will determine what it really is from. Either way, it's still kind of cool to see, and crazy lucky that it didn't fall from the sky and kill anyone. Can you imagine?

Phil tells me that there's a stretch of land over the panhandle of Idaho, where planes notoriously dump the waste tank, leaving incredible streaks of poo in the woodlands. I don't know about you, but that disgusts me, and it sounds very illegal. But if I had to pick, I'd rather get beaned by a frozen turd falling from the sky, over a chunk of a space rocket.